


Gone With The Wind

by NervousOtaku (orphan_account)



Series: Tales of a 144 Player Fansession! [41]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, SBURB Fan Session
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 13:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12170067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/NervousOtaku
Summary: Or: Even When People Leave Us, They're Still Out There Somewhere, So Please Keep Smiling!





	Gone With The Wind

Emily grunted as she touched down on the ground. Leaves crunched under her feet. She'd gotten a message from her friend asking her to come over.

Usually Emily was the one asking Tiponi if she could come over. Something _big_ must've happened.

She wasn't too far from the shaman's house. Curiously, PalhikManasprite was nowhere to be seen. The Sylph wondered what that meant, since the old butterfly-goddess was always greeting everyone.

“Hey, Tip?” Emily called, looking around. “Tip, are you there?”

“Over here.”

She spun on her heel, looking curiously around. After a minute, she spotted the other girl perched in a tree. This tree came with the house, one of the five apple trees of Tiponi's orchard. It was still very green compared to the autumn-riddled forest that covered the planet. There were no fruits, the leaves just starting to turn, but it was still much more spring-y than everything else.

“What're you doing up there?” Emily asked in confusion, walking over to stand with a hand on the trunk. “Should I come up?”

“No.”

The answer was blunt and cold.

A drop of water landed on Emily's wrist, making her flinch.

“... Tip... are you _crying_...?”

“... They're gone.”

“Huh?”

The Rogue lifted her head from her arms, peering down at her. Stormy blue eyes met her own pinkish-purple.

“My spirits. They're gone. I've laid them to rest.” Tiponi said, her voice cracking. Emily had never heard the other girl so expressive. Not even when she'd gotten mad with the other players, there was always a level of calm around her. But now it looked like her friend was in shambles. “All of them. Even Palhik Mana. They're all _gone_.”

“But isn't that a good thing, Tip?” Emily asked in confusion.

Tiponi dragged the heel of her palm across her eyes. “Well... _yeah_ , but... Em, I don't know what to _do_ anymore. With them, I at least knew... Even when they told me that they weren't what I thought they were, I at least felt like I knew what I was doing... but _now_...”

The shaman looked away as a soft shudder ran through her.

Emily watched her friend for a moment longer, then made an executive decision.

With small puffs of wind under her feet kicking up leaves, she flew up so that she was level with Tiponi.

“I told you—”

“And I'm choosing to ignore you. Come on, let's go somewhere.” Emily said with a smile.

“Wha...”

Emily reached out, grabbing Tiponi's wrist. The wind now wrapped itself gently around her friend, lifting her up in an imitation of flight. Smiling, she pulled her friend after her as she left the planet.

She didn't plan to take her to one of the other planets. Rather, she was going to take her friend to see all the other planets without being on any of them. So she flew up, towards the top of the bubble the Incipisphere was contained in. This brought them above Skaia. Looking down, they could see all the planets, with their towers reaching towards the Battlefield. They could see Prospit circling the brilliant ball of blue. They could see Derse just outside the Veil. They could see _everything_ from up here, the small puffs of wind holding Tiponi tugging at their hair.

Emily took both of Tiponi's hands in her own, smiling gently. “Look at this. This is _our_ world, where we have lived for more than three years. We've gone through so much, good _and_ bad, in this world that no one else will _ever_ see. Isn't it _amazing?_ ”

Tiponi didn't answer, studying her in confusion.

“When we first came here, we were kids. Even if we thought we were adults, it was plain to see that we were all kids back then. And now we're growing up, and we know that we still have so much growing to do. We have choices, have options. We have decisions to make. Because we aren't kids playing a game anymore. We're adults carrying forward with our lives. We can do _whatever_ we want.” she continued.

“What if we don't want to do anything?” Tiponi asked, voice quiet.

“Then you don't have to. No one is making you do anything. We only have to survive, but that doesn't mean we can't live how we want. Look at Majorie. She decided that she didn't want to bother with her denizen. She god-tiered and said that was it. The only reasons she does anything any more is to show up Scott and Eugenia.” Emily said, pointing towards LOIAM to emphasize her point.

“... So what do _you_ want to do...?” Tiponi asked quietly, her gaze turning towards her own planet.

Emily was quiet for a minute, turning to look towards the Land Of Butterflies And Quakes.

“... I want to keep growing up. I want to keep baking and watching movies at the group movie night. I want to see the children we'll one day raise, and make lots of cookies for them. I want to grow old and eventually die, knowing that I had fun in my life and made lots of friends.” she said, turning her gaze back to Tiponi. “So what do _you_ want, Tip?”

“I don't _know_ , Em. I've always been tied to my spirits, but now they're all _gone_. Laid to rest, confident we'll be fine.”

“Will we be?”

The shaman looked at her in confusion. The wind was lifting her bangs up, revealing the scar on her forehead, the one that caused the Hopi reservation to declare she'd been blessed. Neither of them knew where the injury had come from yet.

“... I don't know.”

“Don't you want to find out?” Emily asked, closing her eyes and tilting her head with a smile.

The Rogue's grip on her hands tightened, and Emily squeezed back.

“... I don't want to solve my land's quest. It makes no sense. And god-tiering... I already understand my powers, so why should I bother?”

“Then don't. No one is making you do anything.” Emily told her friend.

“But if I don't, then what _do_ I do?”

“Whatever you want. Break your vows of celibacy. Fall in love. Take up a new hobby. Challenge someone to fight you without any reason whatsoever. Help someone else with their quest. Help breed the remaining frogs. No one is making you do _anything_ , so you can do _everything_.”

Tiponi looked down at the Incipisphere, frowning uncertainly.

Still smiling, Emily pulled her friend into a hug.

“They aren't here anymore,” she said gently, “But we can remember them. They aren't here, but the ghosts on Pik and Rolf's planets have to go _somewhere_. Maybe you'll meet again some day, and wouldn't you rather have stories to tell them instead of nothing at all?”

Tiponi gave a small hiccup, hugging her back.

“We'll get _better_ , Tip. We have nowhere to go, so what's stopping us from going _everywhere_ we want?” Emily said soothingly.

“... I want... to know what happened. To make me the medium I was for them. I want to find someone who knows... someone has to...”

“Then let's go talk to Bob. He was the one who made everyone. He'll know something, and we can go from there.” Emily smiled as they separated.

Tiponi let go of her with one hand to wipe at her tears.

When she lifted her head, the shaman was smiling.

Emily smiled back, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

Everything would be okay.


End file.
